Seen the leaflet?

For once, I am not talking about one of mine. Through my door yesterday came a very nice looking glossy – Parliamentary News Alan Keen MP Winter 2009. It came with the rest of the post so was delivered by Royal Mail.

The leaflet includes a perforated edge with next year’s calendar (quite expensive I recall when I priced this feature).

The key bit (and why I am posting) was the small print at the bottom of the last page:

“Paid for by the Communications Allowance, House of Commons”

I have been delivering literature throughout Feltham & Heston over the past year or so. I have been delivering Half Year Reports in my ward since I was elected in 2002 and [along with Gill & Allan] since re-elected in 2006.

The key point is that the glossy literature that has gone out in relation to my campaign to replace Alan Keen was paid for by the Feltham & Heston Conservative Association. The deliveries of that literature have been made by me and a number of brilliant volunteers.

I am interested to know:

How much this leaflet cost to produce?

How much this leaflet cost to deliver?

I do not recall Mr Keen using this Communications Allowance before. Comments on why it is being used now are welcome.

It goes without saying, that I disagree with the Communications Allowance and, if I become MP, it will not be used in Feltham & Heston.

Watch this space [blog] (maintained by me at no cost).

Update: I was wrong in that he has used the Communications Allowance previously. See here.
More generally, here is what can be accessed on the web.

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This entry was posted on December 10, 2009 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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4 Responses to “Seen the leaflet?”

This is uncanny, though. I ‘just happened’ to pull up your blog while having a good giggle with the brilliant “The Now Show” on Radio 4, wondering what you are commenting on today. Moments later (apparently) your colleague Councillor Alan Wilson popped over the road and dropped both the party leaflet “Now for Change”, and the “Feltham North Half-Year Report” through our door. I didn’t see him deliver it, but my brother picked it up, so when he referred to Bowen’s Blog, I thought he too was looking at this very page! What spooky timing.

However, I’ve yet to see Mr Keen’s opus, so I presume that the hard-working posties down at Plane Tree Crescent are delivering them on a Walksort basis and we’ll get them later this week. Either that or the chaps at Jubilee Mail Centre (just outside Feltham and Heston?) have thrown a wobbly.

As to the leaflets received, well the half-year report is as ever informative, and generally encouraging stuff. I’m a little concerned to read “Working to keep you safer”. Whlle I’m sure the intentions are good, I’d like to see the local tories giving much more serious consideration to the issues of over-surveillance, not just in our locality but nationally. We are the most surveillance-ridden society in the world, and I think this should be a serious concern for parties to address.

How much crime does CCTV coverage really stop- you’ve still got to get the bobbies to the scene of trouble, and it’s usually too late. Despite reporting serious vandalism by a gang of youths on Sparrow Farm Estate to the call centre a couple of months back while the crime was in progress, I might as well not have bothered. I don’t know whether the culprits were collared, but my door mirror housing was severely damaged and will cost around £60 to replace- money I cannot spare at present. I don’t want CCTV in a residential road, but I do want police officers who will respond, get convictions and get restorative justice in situations like this!

I could say lots more, but this is your blog, not mine, so I’d best shut up for the moment!

Councillor Bowen , Mr Savage is quite right we DO NOT see enough police on foot , making a presence , i know from my trips to Northern Ireland as a soldier , that if you don’t patrol on foot reguarly in areas , the idiots in that area will think they can get away with anything , and i believe we only have 2 x Police officers and 4 x Psco’s for North Feltham , hardly swamping the area’s , late last night after work whilst waliking my dog on the Staines Rd ( 23.19 ) i came upon 9 Police officers doing a random stop on vehicles , a very pleasant site , but a VERY, VERY rare one ..

Thank you both for these postings. You make great points. The surveillance debate is an interesting one. I enterered politics as a CCTV sceptic but always took the view that I was in a minority. Many people feel safer and I do think that they have a role to play at transport hubs & where there is ASB hotspots.

They should never be seen as an alternative to Police patrolling areas. If there ever was a choice between CCTV and police, the pendulum swings heavily towards the latter.

Rightly or wrongly (I think rightly), it is one of the 10 promises the administration has made so it is important that I comment on its progress.

Can I thank you both for becomming the most regular at providing feedback to my postings. I wish you both a Merry Christmas!

I’m pleased to hear that the policing vs CCTV debate is being keenly followed by you, Mark. Just to take a further example, having CCTV in Feltham Town Centre does not seem to have stopped the sort of problems they were having there. The Controlled Drinking Zone may have improved matters, but I for one would feel much more confident with more regular and visible police patrols in a central area than any amount of cameras.

That being said, I’ve also seen distressing instances where police have got it wrong; once waiting for the H26 bus in the High Street after a late night return from London, I saw an innocent young man- by the way, not of Western European origin, going by appearances- frisked by police. Of course, I don’t know what they may have observed on cameras earlier in the evening elsewhere, but I felt very concerned to see the way in which this individual was treated.

As to being one of the two most regular at providing feedback on your postings, Mark- well, you’re welcome. I am grateful to you for sharpening my interest in local politics, and to you for being one of the most “tech savvy” councillors around in bothering to use the net for showing and telling us what you’re up to. I may not always agree with your own views (particularly on still unresolved contentious issues involving certain Feltham buildings 😉 ), or your party’s- but you have certainly proved one of the best councillors Feltham North has ever seen, in my view.

I expect I’ll find something else to feedback on between now and Christmas Eve (I’m afraid I have issues with your glossy leaflet too, sir!), but I’ll take this chance to wish you and your family “Nadolig Hapus”!